NOME, Alaska — One man in Shishmaref is using a drone to keep track of sea ice conditions this winter. He is using social media to share the footage he collects in an effort to raise awareness about the effects of climate change on Alaska’s Northwest coast.

“One of the reasons why I got it was in the spring time, once everybody starts getting ready to go out ugruk hunting, you can’t really see what the ice is going to be like out there,” he said.

He said sea ice conditions have become less reliable and weather more unpredictable for his fellow seal and walrus hunters in recent years, so footage he collects with the drone “is like insurance.”

“I can shoot either a video or I can shoot still pictures and blow them up and look at the ice, that way I can find a better trail for everybody to go on,” he said.

Davis can legally fly his drone as high as 400 feet. He can also capture images from more than a mile away. He shares it all through accounts on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. He said the first photo he posted last November reached more than 14,000 people, but since then the attention has dwindled.

“At least it’s getting out there and people are recognizing and seeing what we are going through,” he said.

Davis said he’ll continue to post his footage. He wants to stoke a bigger conversation about winter storms and coastal erosion in Western Alaska.

“I feel it’s a personal mission of mine,” he said.

This summer, he plans to travel more than 100 miles of coastline with his drone.

“From Cape Espenberg all the way down past [Shishmaref], just to see what the coastal erosion is up to – how bad it is,” he said.

Davis has considered using his photos and video to start a fundraising effort for the residents of Shishmaref and other villages seriously threatened by climate change, but he hasn’t quite figured out how.

]]>http://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2016/03/14/21228/feed/121228Coast Guard Icebreaker Launches, Lands First Arctic Dronehttp://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2014/08/31/coast-guard-icebreaker-launches-lands-first-arctic-drone/
http://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2014/08/31/coast-guard-icebreaker-launches-lands-first-arctic-drone/#commentsMon, 01 Sep 2014 06:43:35 +0000http://www.knom.org/wp/?p=11599The drone launch and landing took place on the deck of the Coast Guard's Healy, the same vessel that carved a path through the ice for a January 2012 winter fuel delivery to Nome.]]>http://www.knom.org/wp-audio/2014/09/2014-09-01-USCG-drone-landing.mp3

The U.S. Coast Guard has launched and successfully landed an unmanned aircraft—popularly known as a drone—from an ice breaker trawling the Arctic Ocean.

The drone launch and landing—the first of its kind from an icebreaker, Coast Guard officials say—took place Aug. 18 on the deck of the Coast Guard Cutter Healy, the same vessel that carved a path through the ice for a January 2012 winter fuel delivery to Nome.

The drone launch brought scientists at the Coast Guard Research and Development Center based in New London, Connecticut, together to work with researchers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA. Operators with Aerovironment, designers of the drone, were on hand to pilot the machine, which looked like a miniature airplane.

The drone, a “Puma All Environment UAS,” or “unmanned aircraft system,” flew from the Healy’s bow as part of the Coast Guard’s “Oil in Ice” exercise, and as a test of the machine’s abilities in Arctic environments. Operators also used the drone’s infrared and electro-optical camera to provide video of the exercise’s simulated oil spill.

Last year scientists launched the Puma drone from the deck of the Healy, but this year the drone was able to land back on the vessel—albeit roughly. Video of the drone’s flight shows a hard landing back on the Healy, with the craft nosing down sharply and hitting the deck with enough force to break its wings off its body.